Returning to the consulate, Max identifies Horst as an accomplice to the saboteurs, and Horst is arrested. A coroner's report determines Baumer died of poisoning. Reconstructing the event, they discover that he put the poison in the whisky glass for Max, but when something hit the window during the demonstration outside, the whisky glass intended for Max was confused with the consul's own brandy glass, so Baumer mistakenly drank from the glass he meant for Max. Cast Edward McNamara as Police Capt. Mulrooney (uncredited) Milton Berle as Officer Moe Finkelstein Joe Kirk as Officer Solomon Joan Bennett as Sophia Baumer (Wife of General Consul of Germany) Otto Preminger as Karl Baumer (General Consul of Germany) Carl Esmond as Baron Max von Alvenstor (Secretary to the Consul) Howard Freeman as Otto Horst (the American Führer) Clyde Fillmore as Dr. Jennings Poldi Dur as Frieda (as Poldy Dur) personal maid Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as Fritz, Butler (uncredited) Ludwig Donath as Hitler's Voice (as Louis Donath) Ferike Boros as Mrs. Finkelstein (uncredited) Ralph Byrd as Pete, the Dice-Playing Soldier (uncredited) Don Dillaway as Reporter (uncredited) Eddie Dunn as Desk Sergeant (uncredited) Byron Foulger as Drug Store Clerk (uncredited) Selmer Jackson as Coroner (uncredited) Bert Moorhouse as Roulette Croupier (uncredited) Allan Nixon as Soldier (uncredited) Ted North as Saboteur (uncredited) Cyril Ring as Drugstore Clerk (uncredited) Barney Ruditsky as Policeman (uncredited) Hans Schumm as Karl Müller (uncredited) Emmett Vogan as Fingerprint Expert (uncredited) Wolfgang Zilzer as Bit Part (uncredited) Sources The play Margin for Error was based on an incident that occurred in 1938, when New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed Police Captain Max Finkelstein to head a special squad of Jewish officers tasked with protecting the German consulate in the city from protestors. The police officer character's name was originally Max Finkelstein but was changed to Moe Finkelstein after the real Finkelstein's suicide in May 1940. Production Otto Preminger had directed and starred as Baumer in the Broadway production of Claire Booth Luce's play, which opened on November 3, 1939, at the Plymouth Theatre, where it ran for 264 performances, and he reprised the role for a national tour in the summer of 1940. According to the New York Times, 20th Century Fox purchased the screen rights for $25,000 in the spring of 1941 but temporarily shelved the property because studio executives felt Boothe's "statement of the opposition between fascism and